WARD’S Foundation has given us an exceptional opportunity to develop a program tasked with supporting patients and their families as they navigate this landscape in their search for a diagnosis and to then bridge the gaps in care for children with complex medical needs. It is this mission that has brought me here to Charlotte, and I am thrilled for the opportunity to be part of this team.

I have dedicated my career to advancing the care of children with serious illness, specializing in caring for children with medical complexity and their family. I am inspired by how Caroline and Trey Winslett used their heartbreak to create Ward’s legacy and I am determined to honor their story through our work at the Ward Winslett Center for Complex and Rare Diseases. We meet families at various points in their children’s lives and we work with them so that they can share their own story. We partner with them to ensure that the care their children receive honors what is most important to them.

When our rare disease journey began in 2020, we were unable to find the right resources or support for our newborn son in Charlotte. We decided to uproot our family and move over 500 miles north in search of better care at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. During our son's 9-month hospitalization, we learned the importance of specialized care for pediatric rare diseases and how necessary a multidisciplinary approach is for families to understand and cope with a complicated diagnosis. We also felt that we had missed out on the strength and support being in our home community would have provided. By partnering with WARD'S Foundation, our hope is for families in Charlotte and the Carolinas to have access to that support without having to leave home, minimizing the extra stresses that accompany a rare disease diagnosis. We are comforted that our son's legacy can live on through the hope and guidance WARD'S Foundation provides to those families.